The Best American Poetry 2001

by Robert Hass (Editor), David Lehman (Editor)

With an acclaimed former Poet Laureate as guest editor, a definitive collection of poetry offers 2001's finest poems drawn from a variety of sources, including works by John Ashbery, Carolyn Kizer, Robert Pinsky, Amy England, and Rachel Rose, accompanied by each contributor's comments about their work. Simultaneous. 40,000 first printing.

Genres: Poetry, Anthologies, American

287 pages, Paperback

First published August 21, 2001

About the author

Robert Hass was born in San Francisco and lives in Berkeley, California, where he teaches at the University of California. He served as Poet Laureate of the United States from 1995 to 1997. A MacArthur Fellow and a two-time winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award, he has published poems, literary essays, and translations. He is married to the poet Brenda Hillman.

Reviews

[Brett · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love these collections that let me find new poets whose work I can further explore. They're a great way to find poets that speak to you without having to wade through literary magazines or endlessly browse the internet. Poetry is of course a very subjective art and it is inevitable that any collection of varied poets will have different styles, tones, and subjects. Some of these will be more appealing to certain readers than others. Don't read these books expecting to love every poem. Read to find the ones you do love and then find more by that author.

While I don't love this collection as well as I love 1999 (the other one of these I've read), there are plenty of good poems here. I espspecially like Bly's "The French Generals," England's "The Art of the Snake Story," Kirby's "Dear Derrida," Koch's "To World War Two," Richardson's "Vectors: Forty-five Aphorisms and Ten-second Essays," Tate's "The Diagnosis," and Welt's "I stopped writing poetry..."

These are the kinds of poem's I'm usually into: narrative, sometimes funny or wry, and with perhaps more heart than formal or symbolic precision. But you need to bring an open mind to each poem you read and try to meet it wherever it is. There's nothing bad here, only things that resonate more or less.

[B. · Rating 3 out of 5]

Overall, I would give this collection a low B average (technically an 82.40% avg.) as far as the quality of the poems contained. I know that attempting to quantify poetic effect/value is a ridiculous gesture, but I am simply a ridiculous person. Of course, this is purely based on my own tastes and will not necessarily reflect your average satisfaction rate.

Masterpieces (5)
Louise Glück, Time
Sarah Manguso, The Rider
James Richardson, Vectors: Forty-five Aphorisms and Ten-second Essays
Rachel Rose, "What We Heard About the Japanese" & "What the Japanese Perhaps Heard"
Bernard Welt, I stopped writing poetry...

Masterful (13)
Robert Bly, The French Generals
Lee Ann Brown, Sonnet Around Stephanie
Trent Busch, Heartland
Billy Collins, Snow Day
Christopher Edgar, The Cloud of Unknowing
Alan Feldman, Contemporary American Poetry
Anthony Hecht, Sarabande on Attaining the Age of Seventy-Seven
Richard Howard, After 65
Olena Kalytiak Davis, Sweet Reader, Flanneled and Tulled
Galway Kinnell, The Quick and the Dead
Carolyn Kizer, The Ashes
Kenneth Koch, To World War Two
Charles Simic, Night Picnic

Masters Candidates (12)
Rae Armantrout, The Plan
John Ashbery, Crossroads in the Past
Elizabeth Bishop, Vague Poem
Anne Carson, Longing, a documentary
R. Erica Doyle, Ma Ramon
Amy England, The Art of the Snake Story
James Galvin, Little Dantesque
Jane Hirshfield, In Praise of Coldness
Sharon Olds, His Costume
Grace Paley, Here
James Schuyler, Along Overgrown Paths
James Tate, The Diagnosis

Overall, I would absolutely to highly recommend approx. 40% of the poems contained in this volume.

[grantlovesbooks · Rating 2 out of 5]

The 2006 collection I enjoyed much more.

[behsforensics]

Cutting is for I Stopped Writing Poetry
By Bernard Welt

[Marc Kohlman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Of the few editions in "The Best American Poetry" series I have read, this one is among my favorites. Each poem stood out for their own individual tone, style, linguistic form and subjects. Hass and Lehman chose a wonderful collection of pieces for the 2001 edition. This is American Poetry in its detailed and beautiful diversity! I am glad to have received this as a Christmas gift from my cousin the previous year.

[Michelle Hoogterp · Rating 2 out of 5]

There were some amazing poems in the collection, but it's definitely clear that a lot of poetry can be subjective. The opening poems weren't grabbers to me and there were quite a few that just confused me and without any commentary by the poets (which was provided at the back of the book) I would've felt more lost than reading Ulysses by Joyce in Braille.

[Karen Douglass · Rating 2 out of 5]

Always in search of poems that I haven't seen before, I opened this collection with high hopes. Hope fell on its face, laughing at me. I was well into the book before I could say for sure that what I was reading was poetry. Many of the selections were fragmented, oddly formatted--as if that typography would make me think this verbiage was significant. It wasn't.

[David]

A good mixed bag as usual.

[Shana · Rating 4 out of 5]

A wonderful collection. Decided to return the library copy in favor of purchasing my own copy to return to again and again.